Charlie Wooton Project

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

BandWorldJam

CWP’s style is Louisiana bass-driven funk with hints of the Caribbean, West Africa and Brasil. The fluid movement from riveting, classic solo bass pieces to soul-shaking improvisations, the group takes the audience on a musical roller-coaster ride. You know Charlie from his Louisiana band Zydefunk.

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Biography

“Louisiana-Bass-Driven” funk with hints of the Caribbean, West Africa and Brasil.

You may know Charlie from his Louisiana band Zydefunk.Wanting to expand his horizons and play different genres of music Charlie formed a side project by the name of "Dysfunktional Funktion". "I came home one night after a DF gig and was telling my wife how rewarding it was to play all the music that I studied over the years and she said well then why don't you make it more of a priority." That was the birth of the Charlie Wooton Project. This allowed Charlie to play any style and call up any musician he had been wanting to play with outside of Zydefunk. The band is joined by a rotating cast of musicians to offer up a fresh take on their live performance. His personal experience with West African, Brasilian, Latin and Zydeco as well as other World music styles drive the adventurous nature of the Charlie Wooton Project. Wooton has benefited greatly from his ever-curious mind, taking something from every musician he met. As a result Wooton's playing is informed by these varied experiences, and fueled by his zest for recreating his music with every performance.

How does a kid from a little town become influenced by so many different genres? To understand the Charlie Wooton Project you have to first understand Charlie.

Charlie grew up in Lafayette, La. with 4 older brothers who were all exceptional musicians, one of which has a doctorate in music and is the head of percussion at USM, Dr. John Wooton. A lot was expected of him to hold up the musical Wooton family name, a challenge he invited. "My whole life was a competition, I had to do it bigger, better and faster than my brothers, whatever it was, sports, girls, drinkin', and MUSIC." Studying Jazz and Classical music in school by day and gigging by the age of 14 with his brother David by night, Charlie's musical education was literally night and day. At age 17 he got a gig with Bobby Brooks, playing jazz. "I was reading charts every night and if I didn't have a chart Bobby would play the song anyway." From reading charts to playing Zydeco, a roots music that is handed down by generations through interpretation and story telling, Charlie landed a gig with Grammy Award winner Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band. "We would play the LaLa (the dance) for 6 hours straight, no breaks." Charlie toured with Chubby for about a year and till this day gives Chubby credit for teaching him how to put on a show and take care of business.

International Festival de Louisianne is a festival in Lafayette that invites nations from all over the world to participate, this is where Charlie met Mohamod Bongora, a djmbe player from West Africa. One of many life changing moments for him. "Mohamod would make us play a single groove for an hour straight, without getting louder or softer nor could we get faster or slower, it was all about the groove, now that's a lesson for life."

At 20 years old with $20 in his pocket Wooton moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a sound man at 3rd Encore rehearsal studios. Here he got to play with many of his childhood idols, one being Kim Stone. "When I was a teenager I would listen to Kim's bass playing on Spyro Gyro records and dream of meeting him, well I did and he gave me the bass that was on those records." Charlie got call backs from Mic Fleetwood, Seals and Crofts, En Vogue and many more but never landed the big gig. After spending 3 years in L.A. Charlie moved back to the south where he resided in Atlanta, Ga.

Forming Zydefunk during this time period Charlie was able to get back to his roots. Zydefunk, which is still going strong till this day, was featured on CNN World News, headlined many festivals throughout the southeast and played all the local crawfish boils and Mardi Gras parties in Atlanta. This is were Charlie really honed in on his skills on how to entertain an audience. (you can learn more about Zydefunk at www.zydefunk.com)

Playing and recording with Angie Aparo was another life lesson for Charlie, "When I met Angie all I wanted to do is make music move forward, Angie taught me how to take a step back and make the music expand and grow outward, very cool."

Tropicus 22, an eight piece Brasillian samba band, was a dream gig for Wooton, he was always infatuated with Brasillian culture. "The first gig they kept telling me I wasn't doing anything wrong but something wasn't right, until this beautiful Brasillian girl started to samba in front of me and all of a sudden I got the groove. This was the same with zydeco and cajun music from my home, it was all about the dance, food and language that made the music so good."

Charlie also worked as Count M'Butu (percussionist w/ the Derek Trucks Band) and Caroline Aiken's music director.Just before leaving Atlanta Charlie recorded a live CD with Caroline at Eddie's Attic along with Grammy award winner Yonrico Scott on drums and Tommy Martin on guitar. He was the music dir

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Lyrics

King Cake

Give me something good to eatRich and truley what a treatIcing sweet will temp the soulMardi Gras colors green, purple, gold

Chorus:King CakeThere's nothing like itKing Cake Gotta try itKing Cake from New OrleansKing Cake You heard about itKing Cake So excitingKing Cake from New Orleans

Golden' treasures wait insideAround the cinnamon the baby hidesCut a slice and take a biteyou might get lucky and win tonight

Chorus

If your mouth picks up the prize To mark the places you will riseThe golden baby will make you kingtonight is yours to do your thingLike a king you must provideThe next King Cake and party rideIf you want to have some fun A King Cake party is #1

Chorus

Day Dreamin’

Written By: Donnie McCormick

Day Dreamin’

Words and Music by:Donnie McCormick

Verse 1Sittin’ in the shade on a sunny daySippin’ something cool oh by the wayListen to the wind talkin’ to the treesWhisper in my ear sweet summer breeze

ChorusDaydreamin’ about youCan’t get you off my mindDaydreamin’ aboutI do it all the timeYou ring my chimes

Verse 2 and 3BaBaBaBaby what you do to meYou got me BuBuBuBuzzin’ like a honey beeHoney comb come along I’m sweet on you To a cold romantic rendezvousYou got the look that drives men wild You wrote the book and I like your styleI can feel a heat wave comin’ over meJust close my eyes and then I’ll be

It’s Not Funny

Written By: Music By: Marcus Henderson Words By: Ricky Fargo

It’s Not Funny

Music By: Marcus HendersonWords By: Ricky Fargo

Verse 1I been looking high and lowSince early ‘66You can hand down your memoriesBut they still play tricksIn every little cityEvery little townI thought I saw her watching me through every womans eyesIt’s not funny, it’s not funny

Verse 2No money in my pocketMy Levi’s dragging tracksWalking down this dusty roadThat leads to nowhereIn every little cityEvery little townI thought I saw her watching me through every womans eyesIt’s not funny, it’s not funny

Why?I wanted to write something on the spot with Oliver Wood.We came up with the concept of Snake Woman, that woman is nothing but trouble, but you keep going back for more. The night before we recorded the vocals I saw a special on Voodoo and they talked about a bottle tree, that is were you take some river water and a pinch of salt put it in a bottle and hang from a tree to keep the evil spirits away. Oliver came up with this country kind of guitar lick, I asked Ricky to play an African kind of groove and then we put the guitar on top of that. I started to play a bass line and Jody said “To busy.” So I came up with the bass line that is on the recording. We added Nate to play some slide guitar. Jody wrote the mandolin solo and I doubled it with fretless bass and then Jody and I whistled along with the solo.

So Hard To Say!

Verse 1So many days go bySo many ways I triedI’ve tried so many waysSo many ways to find some peace inside

Verse 2Dad said son let it ride, let it ride, let it rideYou gotta let things roll of you like the morning dewOh yes you doBut you see I can’t stand for thatI just got to just figure out a wayTo reach inside and be me see

Verse 3Hey! I just want some peace you’llJust let me look around inside myselfI can’t touch anything that use to belong to meI just want to be so still inside I want to be me

Why:I wrote this groove and we recorded it with out having any idea what the words or melody would be. Marcus came into the session and I told him to sing in a certain spot and play his sax in a certain spot. He was having a rough day and couldn’t settle down so he started singing about being still inside. I think this is my favorite track so far.

Discography

1st C.D. is titled ZydefunkCharlie Wooton Project C.D is done!! Caroline Aiken CD at Eddie's Attic March 6 2010 with Grammy award winning Yonrico Scott and Tomi Martin! LIVE STUDIO RECORDING ZYDEFUNK w/ CHUBBY CARRIER AND MICHAEL DOUCET!!!! !!You can hear some of our music in the audio section of this epk

Set List

The Charlie Wooton Project has a very large repertoire of originals and covers artist they are mostly influenced by. We like to play long sets to keep the momentum going.